welcome to nhk world "newsline." i'm gene otani in tokyo. here's a look at the stories we're following this hour. a jordanian fighter pilot cap tred in syria. islamic state militants claim to have shot down the plane taking part in a coalition operation. japanese researchers have found hope for an alternative energy source deep under the sea. a frozen natural gas called methane hydrate.

and ten years after the indian ocean tsunami, a city official in indonesia is promoting disaster preparedness by using lessons learned from japan. islamic state militants in northern syria say they have shot down a fighter jet and captured its pilot. jordan's military says the plane was taking part in the u.s.-led coalition. >> reporter: images posted on twitter show a man the is the captured after a coalition air raid over the syrian province of raqqa. islamic state militants group claims a missile was used to bring down the fighter jet. if that is true, this would be

the first time the group has successfully attacked a coalition plane. but the u.s. military refutes the claim. the general of the u.s. central command says the militant group is misrepresenting the crash for it is own purposes. he says the u.s. will work closely with jordan armed forces to rescue the pilot. the u.s. and its partners, including jordan, have been launching air strikes on islamic state-linked targets. officials say they launched on wednesday alone. in the iraqi capital of baghdad, a suicide bomber killed 38 security workers on wednesday. they have come to collect payments from the military. they believe the attack is connected to the islamic state. ♪ christians in northern iraq

gathered at a church to mark christmas. thousands of christians and members of ethnic minorities have fled their homes in fear of the islamic state attacks. >> translator: we have faced a horrible violence othe islamic state. we pray for peace to come. >> reporter: the u.s. department of state department released a statement saying the u.s. will continue to stand with the iraqi government in the effort to build a unified nation. there are no signs that the group will finish by year's end. tomaka kata, nhk world. people in japan have been struggling to deal with an energy shortage but may one day find their fears are a thing of the past. yuko fukushima has more. what is going on? >> japan has no energy sources,

especially after utilities shut down nuclear reactors, but that could be changing. government researchers are probing the floor for a type of natural gas called methane hydrate. now they say they have managed to collect soil samples containing the gas. they drilled in three locations off the sea of japan coast. they found samples containing methane hydrate at all three sites. the gas occurs in a frozen state. researchers have used a state-of-the-art ship to look for the deposits. they drilled the seabed to a depth of about 100 meters. some deposits were up to 1 meter thick. they plan to continue their survey in the sea of japan. they want to determine how much gas is there with the goal of starting commercial production. officials say their studies suggest nearly 1,000 sites contain deposits of methane

hydrate. japan's prime minister shinzo abe has delivered a message to business leaders and says that continuing to raise the salary of the workers is the key to creating a strong economy. abe spoke at a meeting of the japan business federation. he referred to last week's agreement to make an effort to raise wages. >> translator: i hope leaders of the business community will make visible moves based on this new agreement. >> abe said members of his new cabinet will finalize an economic package on saturday. the plan is to stimulate consumption and revitalize local economies. he said officials hope to promote regular la tear reforms in the employment and energy sectors. bank of japan governor also spoke at the meeting. >> translator: companies that

have high earnings need to use the money actively. >> to increase wages and capital investments, he said this would create a positive cycle in the economy. let's check on the markets now. many of those around the asia pacific were closed for business. major forces in europe were shut down as well. in tokyo, it was business as usual. the nikkei fell to 17,808 as investors prepare for year-end holidays. the nikkei is expected to close out the year above 18,000. analysts say optimism about the u.s. economy and hope for the economic policies will bolster investor sentiments. shanghai's index rose to 3,072. the market rallied after reports that the central bank may ease

liquidity between the institutions. the taiex ended to 9,158 as big profits. turning to currencies now, the dollar is moving in a narrow range against 120.11 to 15. the euro is at 146.98 to 11. taking a a look at the japanese government bond fell to an all-time low of .310%. officials at one of japan's biggest banks say they will buy the local retail arm of u.s. financial giant citigroup. executives at sumitomo banking corporation hope it will give

them more business with the wealthy customers. executives will take over next year. sources say it's about $375 million. sumitomo will take over the city bank customers and take over the 32 branches and 1600 employees. the executives say they will merge these operations into their affiliate s and bc trust bank. they are trying to court wealthy customers, including business people who frequently travel abroad. citigroup executives say low interests rates have made it difficult to profit through retail operations in japan. government officials in japan say demand for new homes continues to be weak. they say there have been fewer housing starts compared to the same period last year for nine straight months. land ministry officials say in november housing starts fell to

about 78,300, down 14% from last year. the biggest drop was houses of people planning to live in them. the numbers homes to be built for for sale fell by 6%. the officials say the impact of the consumption tax hike in april is dragging on. they say more people are visiting houses that many appear cautious about buying. that's all for now in business. i'll leave you with the latest markets.

u.s. secretary of state john kerry has called on china's leaders to release the country's first nobel peace prize laureate from priz son. liu is for state power. kerry issued a statement on wednesday to mark the anniversary of liu's conviction. the united states is deeply concerned about the house arrest of his wife. the writer was sentenced in 2009 after he released documents online criticizing the nation's one-party rule. in 2010, liu was awarded the nobel peace price but chinese authorities did not allow him to attend the ceremony. china was urged to for people

expressing their views, including weaker academic ilham tohti and pu zhigiang. a u.s. court says the family of a christian missionary has enough evidence to hold for the killing. the man went missing 14 years ago while helping to provide hideouts for north korean defectors. an appeals court in washington ruled that the family can seek damages from north korea. the court said expert analyses and u.n. reports are enough to support the conclusion that the country is to blame. kim's family filed for damages in the united states because he was a permanent u.s. resident. they appealed last year after a federal district court dismissed the claim on the grounds that there wasn't enough evidence. the appeals court said north korea can be held liable because

the country had been on a list of state sponsors of terrorism. washington removed it from the list in 2008. the court sent the case back to the district court. the mayor of a city in missouri is calling for calm in the wake of protests over the killing of a black teenager by a white police officer. the town is near ferguson where the shooting death of another black teenager in august triggered massive protests across the country. a crowd gathered around a gasoline station in berkeley where the white police officer shot the 18-year-old boy. the protesters threw rocks at police officers. the local media say two officers were injured and four people were detained. mayor theodore hoskins said surveillance cameras captured images of the incident. >> we are going to have a

complete investigation and at the time, within the next week, we are planning on providing that information to the residents. >> hoskins said the officer was responding to a robbery report. the case does not compare to other recent incidents involving police officers in ferguson and new york. people around the indian ocean are preparing to mark the tenth anniversary of a devastating tsunami. they can learn lessons from that disaster in more detail thanks to a smartphone app in japan. researchers launched software. the mayor of the regional capital says she's excited about its potential for education. >> translator: i hope this app will convey lessons to people of

today and to future generations. >> kyoto university professor worked on the software development. he and his colleagues wanted a way to share what they had seen after the tsunami. around 116,000 people went missing in that region of acech alone. >> translator: sharing what happened will help acech recover. >> the app contains images of the capital after the tsunami struck. users can get a sense of the devastation and the recovery. a city official in the capital of acech province is committed to ensuring that such a tragedy doesn't happen again. he's promoting disaster preparedness by using what he has learned from the great east japan earthquake. nhk world reports.

>> reporter: this is meant to help people remember their experiences of the indian ocean tsunami. but only about 1% of residents participate. this man planned the training session. ten years after the tsunami, he fee feels a sense of crisis as more residents move into the city. the fear of tsunami is fading. after the disaster, people rebuilt in a hurry. he says one consequence of this is that many of the city's roads remain narrow and winding. he says a creation of escape

routes have been put off. >> translator: towns must include disaster preparation measures in their reconstruction plans. the residents must examine ways to prepare for the next disaster. >> hafriza studied for a year until last march. he trained in miyagi prefecture. it was one of the places devastated by the great tsunami. his program was sponsored by the japan international cooperation agency. schools are designated to function as evacuation centers. he also runs the importance of

incorporating residents' opinions when mapping out evacuation routes. >> translator: what i found most interesting was that residents had individually prepared for disasters by stocking up on necessities. it's important that people get ready by themselves. >> hafriza has began educating people on the importance of being ready for a disaster. this tsunami evacuation building was elected six years ago with japanese aid. the four-story building is equipped with a rescue helicopter and is normally used as a community center. but many of the residents are unaware of its function as an evacuation point. he has equipped the building with internet to encourage more

people to use it he now plans to hold an exhibition on the theme of tsunami. he will educate people on the need for disaster preparedness. >> translator: in japan, people try to prepare for disasters as everyone is aware how fierce nature can be. i hope i can share what i have learned. >> reporter: as the tsunami anniversary approaches, he has resolved to make his city's countermeasures as secure as possible. nhk world, banda aceh. gone with the wind, the 1939 american film has enchanted many movie lovers across the world. 75 years after its premier, it's

taking on new significance. here is that story. ♪ >> reporter: from the first swells of the opening music, people will recognize the theme to the classic love story of scarlett o'hare ra and butler. throughout the year, fans celebrated the 75th anniversary of the film, including this event in marietta, georgia. alicia woodstock is one of them. she has loved this story ever since her mother first took her to see the film when she was 8 years old. >> this is the collection of the 50th anniversary. >> reporter: she's been

rereading the book again and again and collecting memorabilia. she even drew inspiration from the story for her daughter's name. >> this is my daughter tara. i named her after the plantation in "gone with the wind." i wanted her to have a strong name, something that meant strength and endurance. >> reporter: while many fans still love the epic story of the old south, others are calling for a re-examination of the film. kelly carter jackson is a professor at hunter college in new york city. she teaches a course on slavery in film. >> you don't ever really see slaves in the field, you don't ever really see like the sort of imagery that you think you would see with slavery. it's like, where are the workers? where are the slaves, right? >> reporter: jackson asks her students to study and analyze "gone with the wind."

>> you almost forget that slavery is an issue because you're caught up in tin the nostalgia of the characters. >> reporter: yet it's a teaching tool. >> it's really important for students to understand that history. we spend a lot of time not just looking at the film but when and how the film was produced. >> reporter: it gives a new wants account of the characters. this new novel is the first to give voice to one of the slaves, manny, who didn't even have a name in the original story. the woman appears as one of the central figures in the film. she is a slave in scarlett's household. the nameless woman gave donald mccaig the to right the sequel. >> we don't know her name.

we don't know if she had been married or fell in love. >> reporter: in mccaig's story, she has a name. ruth. it's a fictional story. she was born in haiti. the publisher has printed an ambitious 250,000 copies in hard cover and says that they are selling well. >> i think it would have been very strange in those days for margaret mitchell to have asked the questions that we can now ask. >> reporter: 75 years later, "gone with the wind" remains a source of fascination and imagination and offer as starting point for discussion in 21st century american society. erina aoyama, nhk world, atlanta, georgia.

usaustralians are experiencg summer wet weather. >> the hemisphere is now into the southern season so christmastime happens in the summer. we're seeing a rainy pattern where the clouds pop up into brisbane and then at times stretching as far south as sidneas sydney. you can see this young kid here also wearing a santa hat, too, and brings out the festive feeling to the day and also the lifeguards also wearing the santa hats as well. but the visitors, they were saying that they were a bit confused with the weather because they are coming in from the northern hemisphere, places like england and coming down to

a very warm weather pattern. so they were a little bit -- i don't know about shocked but confused that it wasn't feeling like christmastime because they were experiencing a more cold type for them. we have a low pressure system departing out of the coast but behind it we will see instability continuing to kick up towards the gulf coast and that's where we will see the rain and coast continuing. here's a look at the forecast for sydney. windy and drier as the system departs and then on sunday the system returns. melbourne is warming up and drying out as we go into saturday and sunday. as we go over to north america, a very different story. much colder weather and snowy weather. a low pressure system is rolling over the rockies and that's going to bring snowfall into the upper elevations including denver. towards the east, we're seeing another low pressure system in quebec which will produce snow

and windy conditions for quebec. the cold front extending down to the south which will clear the eastern seaboard and an improvement in weather conditions. high pressure system will dominate the south so we will see drier, sunnier conditions. you can see over into jolly, georgia and bethlehem, texas. by sunday, even into pennsylvania, we'll see wet weather taking place on sunday. here's a look at the forecast for europe where we are now seeing the clouds starting to spread further down towards the south as the cold front is opening the door for the instability to move down into the balkin peninsula. we'll see pockets of showers popping up here or there. here's a look for the forecast christmas day and into the

weekend. cloudy conditions in london and paris and berlin. relatively speaking, we'll see dry conditions with scatter itted precipitation around the couldn't nent. wrapping things up with a look at east asia, most of china is dry but a front towards the south is bringing showers for the southern coast. we also have some snow taking place into hokkaido. that will continue as we go into friday. seoul, 3. tokyo, 9. hope you have a merry christmas and happy holidays wherever you are. here's your extended outlook.

that's "newsline" for this hour. i'm gene otani in tokyo. from all of us here at nhk world, thanks very much for joining us and happy holidays.cc

oh uses his annual christmas day message to the mountain violence around the world, particularly among children -- a pope francis. pakistani leaders agreed to establish a military court for terrorism-related cases as part of a national plan of action following the deadly taliban school attack. and the u.s. rejects a claim from the islamic state group that it shot down a warplane flying with american-led coalition forces. it does not say because caused the crash but confirms the i.s. is now holding the jordanian pilot hostage. those are the headlines for you here on france 24. thank you